(New York Post) The career crook whom Mayor Adams dubbed “Recidivist No. 1” as a symbol of the city’s revolving door of criminal justice has been identified as Harold Gooding, a 53-year-old serial shoplifter — who has been arrested 101 times.
“How many crimes do you think he really committed? Two hundred? Three hundred? A thousand?” NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri said at a news conference Wednesday.
“And guess what? He’s walking around the streets of New York City today, probably committing another crime as we speak.”
On Wednesday, sources identified Gooding as the unnamed person at the top of the NYPD’s list of the “Worst of the Worst” repeat offenders — let free again and again thanks to New York’s broken bail-reform law.
Gooding has served three prison terms, starting with a one- to three-year sentence for an attempted-burglary conviction in Brooklyn in 1994, according to state records.
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In an alleged string of robberies this year, Gooding shoplifted from a Target store in Tribeca multiple times — all while wearing the same distinctive white hat, the Manhattan DA’s Office charged.
Under the state’s bail-reform law, he was freed without bail on supervised release in the robberies, the DA’s Office said.
The landlord at Gooding’s last known address in The Bronx said he had lived there for about three years until moving out in June 2021 after the landlord called police to accuse him of stealing packages.
